/*  Copyright (c) 2012 Xiaoyun Zhu
 * 
 *  Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy  
 *  of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal  
 *  in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights  
 *  to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell  
 *  copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is  
 *  furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 *  
 *  The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in  
 *  all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 *  
 *  THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR  
 *  IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,  
 *  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE  
 *  AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER  
 *  LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,  
 *  OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN  
 *  THE SOFTWARE.  
 */
package cn.kk.fluidcells.api;

import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Locale;

public interface CellPlugin {
    public static final List<CellIdentifier> NO_DEPENDENCIES = Collections.emptyList();

    /**
     * 
     * @return a descriptive name of the plugin in the following formats: "plugin-name" or "plugin-name;version", e.g.
     *         sampleplugin;1.0.0
     */
    // TODO @see org.apache.maven.artifact.versioning.DefaultArtifactVersion
    CellIdentifier getIdentifier();

    /**
     * List of cell plugin names (see getName()) which the cell plugin is dependent of. If a version is given, only
     * compatible plugin will be found. (The given version is interpreted as the minimum version. And versions with the
     * same major version are compatible with the given version.)
     * 
     * @return list of dependencies
     */
    List<CellIdentifier> getDependencies();

    /**
     * List of localized feature descriptions which the cell plugin provides.
     * 
     * @param appLocale
     *            current Locale of the application
     * @return list of localized feature descriptions
     */
    List<CellFeature> getFeatures(Locale appLocale);

    /**
     * Initializes the cell plugin.
     */
    void init();

    /**
     * Create cell objects and starts cell.
     */
    void start();

    /**
     * Stops cell and removes cell objects.
     */
    void stop();

}
